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I once heard a phrase "Poor Planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part."

In California (other states too?), signs are posted on the wider shoulders of freeways which read "Emergency Parking Only". On these shoulders truckers regularly pull over and appear parked, usually in the evening. Most of the time there are several trucks there. The engines don't appear to be running and the trucks have what look like parking lights illuminated.

I can't prove they are spending hours there sleeping but - they are spending hours there sleeping.

The California Highway Patrol was asked "Why do you permit these trucks to park in the emergency shoulder?". They twisted the response to "If they fall asleep that is a road danger so they need to sleep". In other words, they didn't answer the question.

What message does it send the public when the CHP apparently allows trucks to park illegally on the shoulders instead of insisting the truckers park legally on streets?

Truckers are only allowed to drive a certain number of hours per day. Once they go over that, they get penalized. Which is why they park and sleep. Good measure, imo since I wouldn't want to be rear ended by a truck because the driver was falling asleep!

Truckers are only allowed to drive a certain number of hours per day. Once they go over that, they get penalized. Which is why they park and sleep. Good measure, imo since I wouldn't want to be rear ended by a truck because the driver was falling asleep!

I'd love to see you drive an 18 wheeler and try to pull that thing off the freeway. There are many places where trucks over a certain weight are not allowed, and I'm assuming residential streets are one of them. You cannot park in a store parking lot and take up their parking and as someone mentioned, many of the rest stops are closed. When we drove from San Diego to Phoenix, just about every single truck stop on the way was closed for "construction." So what are they supposed to do? If the gov't takes away designated truck stops, they have no choice but to pull over and sleep wherever they can.

I'd love to see you drive an 18 wheeler and try to pull that thing off the freeway. There are many places where trucks over a certain weight are not allowed, and I'm assuming residential streets are one of them. You cannot park in a store parking lot and take up their parking and as someone mentioned, many of the rest stops are closed. When we drove from San Diego to Phoenix, just about every single truck stop on the way was closed for "construction." So what are they supposed to do? If the gov't takes away designated truck stops, they have no choice but to pull over and sleep wherever they can.

A big "thank you" to Walmart.

Everytime I go to the Walmart near me ( Minnesota) near I 94 , there are a few semis parked in the corner of their parcking lot and a few campers also.

I'd love to see you drive an 18 wheeler and try to pull that thing off the freeway. There are many places where trucks over a certain weight are not allowed, and I'm assuming residential streets are one of them. You cannot park in a store parking lot and take up their parking and as someone mentioned, many of the rest stops are closed. When we drove from San Diego to Phoenix, just about every single truck stop on the way was closed for "construction." So what are they supposed to do? If the gov't takes away designated truck stops, they have no choice but to pull over and sleep wherever they can.

So don't pull onto residential streets.

What's the probability that within one mile of any freeway off ramp there isn't at least one place for a big rig truck to legally pull over and sleep?

It wouldn't take a lot of analysis using a map to determine areas off the freeways where pulling over is OK. Rural roads, highways with no parking restrictions, industrial areas, commercial areas....basically anything except residential.

Any trucker, a day in advance, could within five minutes, estimate about where he will need to stop and rest. From that location he can use the internet or even 15th century technology (paper maps) to come up with candidate locations to legally stop.

There are all sorts of online tools and GPS POIs which makes this job of finding legal places to pull over a slam dunk.

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